Computer Disaster Recovery – Planning, Tips and Resources

Computer Disaster Recovery is the process where you prepare for recovery should a natural or human-induced action cause a major system problem. The main objective of computer disaster recovery planning is to protect companies in the eventuality that its operations or computer services go down and to restore it as smoothly and quickly as possible.

According to National Archives & Records Administration :

93% of companies who lost their data center for 10 days, went bankrupt within a year.

43% of Companies who run into some computer disasters, never re-open.

The greatest challenge therefor that most companies face today is the computer disaster recovery problem. If a proper disaster recovery plan is in place, it will allow companies to retain their clients and at the same time boost their confidence level as they struggle to get back to their normal functioning. The two most important agendas that a company must adopt, if it wants to lessen the impact of a disaster, are :

Proper disaster recovery plan, and

Disaster recovery software.

What are Computer Disasters and their Recoveries?

A disaster may strike in the form of data loss threats like virus, manual deletion by human error, etc. or in the form of natural disasters like floods, fires or terrorist attacks. Disasters caused by way of internal data loss are increasing with every passing day in the form of viruses, spyware, hackers, etc. Natural or unexpected disasters like the Tsunami or the 9/11 attacks caused massive computer crashes and network failures.

Businesses, today, operate round the clock in order to maximize productivity. Hence, it is essential for companies to realize the importance of a disaster recovery plan. Many companies hire disaster recovery agents but a better thing to do would be to plan well for a computer disaster.

Formulating a computer disaster recovery plan

A disaster plan is a well written document which chalks out the steps to be executed in the event of a disaster. The steps can be performed in three stages like before, after or during the disaster.

A disaster plan brings in a sense of security, lessens chances of a chaotic situation and prepares the company so that it is able to regain its normalcy in a short span. It not only includes the security risks or the recovery plans, but also plans for the prevention of data loss.

Some useful tips for computer disaster recovery:

The potential disasters and their causes should be identified and the disasters should also be classified

The resources that would prove to be helpful in order to minimize the impact of a disaster should be identified

Identify a proper support recovery process that would comprise of technology, facilities, communication and personnel, and setting up emergency lines to reach them as fast as possible

Open all channels of communication so as to minimize the panic caused amongst clients or employees

Include goal-oriented methodologies that would help the company gain its normalcy quickly

Set up a master replication of your important data in real time which should not be reachable by similar disasters at the same time

Implement virtualization and cloud computing technologies

Carry out a thorough smoke testing of the disaster recovery plan in order to test its credibility

Some well known and trusted disaster recovery services can be mentioned as CtrlS, Vision Solutions, RiverBed. Webhosts like Rackspace always provide you with the data recovery plans by default through their DR infrastructure.